My ride for most of Japan
Kagoshima, the southernmost city on the Japanese mainland
Grass under trolley lines - I liked it
Looking into the bay, the neighboring volcano Sakurajima grumbles
Ferry to Sakurajima
My hostel on Sakurajima
Always opt for the food made at the hostel!
A memorial to those who died at the bombing of Nagasaki
Sakurajima's rich soil is known to produce some gigantic fruits. Look at my book for scale next to those!
Not sure what this was here for
A nice traditional-style dinner in Nagasaki
A bit blurry - Nagasaki at night
The hypocenter of the explosion in Nagasaki
Some Nagasaki-style hearty soup
Many temples line the valley at Nagasaki
En route to Hiroshima, stopped at Fukuoka to check out the scene
Green building in Fukuoka
A waitress helps me make some delicious okinomiyaki
The end result
A-bomb dome in Hiroshima
Hiroshima immediately post-explosion
Water shrine a short ferry ride into the inland sea from Hiroshima
Yummy peanut-covered doughballs
Friendly deer roamed the island
Panorama of the inland sea looking towards Hiroshima
Enormous, delicious oysters
After Hiroshima, I went to Shikoku to stay at an organic farm
The farmhouse
Our dining room, living room, and bedroom
The two caretakers of the farm
Making some okinomiyaki
Grilling some eggplant and dofu (rock tofu)
A short hike into the valley to the stream (one of the few left in japan that hasn't been enclosed by cement walls)
Dinner on night two - making some hearty chanko-nabe - soup of the sumo wrestlers
Nabe
Enormous construction invades all of Japan, and this area was no exception
En route to Kyoto, stopped at Himeji, a beautiful castle
Himeji's only fire defense - a little statue of a fish
Up the steep climb to Koyasan, a holy place with many temples
My dinner in a temple at Koyasan
The temple garden
One of the most amazing (and creepy) cemeteries I have ever been to
Much of it has become overgrown
Burial place of Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism. He is why there are over 100 small temples on Koyasan
My temple
My room.
Kyoto train station
My guide and hostel owner in Kyoto on the left
Sprawling Kyoto panorama
Everything feels jumbo sized in Kyoto
'The Philosophers Path' in Kyoto
Made it to Tokyo just in time to get standby tickets to the biggest sumo tournament of the year!
The Yokozuna (highest ranked sumo wrestlers) prepare for their matches
There are no weight classes in sumo, hence the enormous weight disparities among wrestlers (light and heavy each have pros/cons)
The ritual aspect of the match was very important
Sumo tournament
a 54km long underground and undersea high speed train tunnel. Crazy to look at some of the specs here. This connected northern Honshu with southern Hokkaido.
After Tokyo, I shot up to Sapporo in Hokkaido, in the north, and for my first dinner had some traditional curry-soup
Browsing the botanical gardens of Sapporo
More botanical gardens in Sapporo
Church tower originally made in Boston made its way to Sapporo a long time ago
Sapporo brewery
Canadian guy I met at the hostel and I sample some of what Sapporo has to offer
